I'd been meaning to go and revisit some of the places I'd been to in the Forked River Mountains between 2001-2004, but never really had the time or the inclination. Today I had both. 
Coming in my usual way by the boardwalk on 539 I saw that the state seemed to have come in and did some maintenance on the road. All of the puddles are gone, and fresh sand is in their place. Eureka Gun Club is pretty grown over, which I imagine is part of their design to keep people off the property.
I really wan't expecting this surprise, though:
Yes, looks like Black's Bridge has been completely rebuilt out of metal. The wooden guardrails are gone, and the bridge deck is metal grating.
Goodbye, old wooden bridge:
I also stopped by to check on Black's Stone. It's really, really choked up back there.
Continuing on, I wanted to try to find Ted Gordon's Aserdaten Ruins, as was discussed here a few years ago. I think I may have been looking too far North, as all I found were the ruins that Bob found a few years ago.
Then, I found myself driving down a very narrow trail:
on my way to revisit the ruins of a gun club near Aserdaten that I had first visited in September of 2003. Since I can't find the pictures from back then, I re-uploaded them in this album.
I was very happy to see that the ruins are more or less as I left them 5 years ago. They're pretty out of the way, and not so easy to drive up to. The road was tight, and by the time I got to the intersection of Dutchman's Rd. and the road I was on (presumably unnamed) I figured I'd added enough pinstripes to the truck and I ought to stop. I did the same thing five years ago.
Now:
Then:
Now:
Then:
Now:
Then:
From there I retracted my steps up to the Forked River Mountain Preserve. Established in 1997, the preserve protects 531 acres of land from development. The preserve is north of Aserdaten, and you'll need some sort of 4x4 to get to it. The Nature Conservancy will let you drive back there as long as you stick to the established roads. The views are just absolutely amazing, and to be honest look more like the plains of Africa than the Pine Barrens.
Someone has also setup a shooting range back there. That's prohibited, but at least there's a HUGE berm behind the targets so no stray bullets can harm anything.
From there, I doubled back down past Aserdaten and went up the mountain:
Checked out the view:
and then visited the ammunition depot ruins by the Tuckerton RR:
I still really want to try to find the ruins that Ted is talking about. I just can't really picture where he says the ruins are, though.
Coming in my usual way by the boardwalk on 539 I saw that the state seemed to have come in and did some maintenance on the road. All of the puddles are gone, and fresh sand is in their place. Eureka Gun Club is pretty grown over, which I imagine is part of their design to keep people off the property.
I really wan't expecting this surprise, though:
Yes, looks like Black's Bridge has been completely rebuilt out of metal. The wooden guardrails are gone, and the bridge deck is metal grating.
Goodbye, old wooden bridge:
I also stopped by to check on Black's Stone. It's really, really choked up back there.
Continuing on, I wanted to try to find Ted Gordon's Aserdaten Ruins, as was discussed here a few years ago. I think I may have been looking too far North, as all I found were the ruins that Bob found a few years ago.
Then, I found myself driving down a very narrow trail:
on my way to revisit the ruins of a gun club near Aserdaten that I had first visited in September of 2003. Since I can't find the pictures from back then, I re-uploaded them in this album.
I was very happy to see that the ruins are more or less as I left them 5 years ago. They're pretty out of the way, and not so easy to drive up to. The road was tight, and by the time I got to the intersection of Dutchman's Rd. and the road I was on (presumably unnamed) I figured I'd added enough pinstripes to the truck and I ought to stop. I did the same thing five years ago.
Now:
Then:
Now:
Then:
Now:
Then:
From there I retracted my steps up to the Forked River Mountain Preserve. Established in 1997, the preserve protects 531 acres of land from development. The preserve is north of Aserdaten, and you'll need some sort of 4x4 to get to it. The Nature Conservancy will let you drive back there as long as you stick to the established roads. The views are just absolutely amazing, and to be honest look more like the plains of Africa than the Pine Barrens.
Someone has also setup a shooting range back there. That's prohibited, but at least there's a HUGE berm behind the targets so no stray bullets can harm anything.
From there, I doubled back down past Aserdaten and went up the mountain:
Checked out the view:
and then visited the ammunition depot ruins by the Tuckerton RR:
I still really want to try to find the ruins that Ted is talking about. I just can't really picture where he says the ruins are, though.
